Monday, September 08, 2008

Quotes of the day

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.--Benjamin Disraeli

I contend that reducing the role of money of politics in order to make politics more honest is like trying to make airplanes safer by reducing the role of gravity. Let's get money out of politics by making politicians less powerful.--Russell Roberts

Democratic government in the United States today offers neither adequate exit nor adequate voice to its constituents. Just as our economy is characterized by extreme inequality of income and wealth, our political system is one in which power is very unevenly distributed.--Arnold Kling

I am saddened whenever any private profit-seeking enterprise gets bailed out, whether it is Chrysler, Long-term Capital Management, Bear Stearns, or the GSEs. Such bailouts sow the seeds of the next financial crisis by fostering expectations of future bailouts and encouraging excessive risk-taking. (And before anyone emails me that the GSE equity holders are not exactly getting a good deal here, let me point out that the debt holders are. In a capitalist system, you want those extending both debt and equity finance to bear the consequences of the risks they undertake. If the taxpayer is chipping in, someone is being insulated from risk.)--Greg Mankiw

I also think there's no way to develop any direct test of media bias that will satisfy people who want to disbelieve in it.--Megan McArdle

Obviously, we should rush to drill now if we expected oil prices to decline sharply in the future, because then the reserve would be rapidly depreciating while it is left in the ground. But that does not seem to be the argument of the bozos on either side of the aisle.--Giacomo Ponzetto

The real legacy of the Bush Administration may turn out to be Washington's invasion of financial markets. Five years from now, we could find ourselves with no exit strategy. My guess is that we'll be pretty much out of Iraq by then. But it would not surprise me to see Freddie and Fannie still in limbo. And who knows whether the Fed's portfolio, which took on some unusual assets with the Bear Stearns rescue, will look more or less exotic than it does today?--Arnold Kling

On the issue of dividend taxation, Barack Obama may be the candidate with the best chance of preserving George Bush’s legacy.--Greg Mankiw

If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it. Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress. This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.--Barack Obama

Hence the weird anger emanating from social liberals at the religious right's failure to tar and feather the Palins and run them out of GOP politics on a rail: They're mad that religious conservatives aren't fitting neatly into the stereotypes that liberals have spent years cultivating.--Ross Douthat

... children who lived in cities that gave them more exposure to television in early childhood performed better on the tests than those with less exposure.--Justin Lahart

We now realize that the overall policy of promoting home ownership was carried to excess. Even taking as given the goal of expanding home ownership, the public policy case for subsidizing mortgage finance was weak. The case for using the GSEs as a vehicle to subsidize mortgage finance was weaker still. The GSE structure serves to privatize profits and socialize losses. And even if one thought that home ownership was worth encouraging, mortgage debt was worth subsidizing, and the GSE structure was viable, allowing the GSEs to assume a dominant role in mortgage finance was a mistake. The larger they grew, the more precarious our financial markets became.--Arnold Kling

The right solution is the advancement of politicians, in either party but particularly the Republicans, who are wedded, as a matter of principle, to pro-growth policies and to the spirit of dynamism that is New York's greatest asset. This means candidates who fight for low taxation, modest government, deregulation, free trade, and more open immigration. And who appreciate the role of our city's biggest crop, which is capital gains.--NY Sun Editorial Board

Fair should be fair. They got me, point blank. I don’t want to get singled out. Don’t make me feel like I’m getting singled out. If you’re going to do a job, be consistent at what you do. This falls into the same category as mine, no if’s, and’s or but’s. He hit the quarterback below the waist. I hit a quarterback below the waist. I got fined. I got flagged. He didn’t get flagged. And from what I’m hearing, he didn’t get fined.--Vince Wilfork, on the hit to Tom Brady